1 Between 4 to 85 percent of females compared with 2 to 25 percent of males were involved in brainwashing. Furthermore, females were more likely to fit at the extreme end of the continuum in degree and type of brainwashing (Clawar, Stanley S., et al. Children Held Hostage: Dealing with Programmed and Brainwashed Children. Chicago: American Bar Association, 1991 at 155).

2 "85 to 90 percent of children will reside with their mothers" (Johnston, Janet. Non-Residential Parenting: New Vistas in Family Living. California: Sage, 1993 at 109).

3 There are ideological reasons for women being the instigators of brainwashing: the link between female identity and parenting and the associated negative opinions of male parenting; desire to create the "new" family and peer group expectations; the paramour factor (fear of another loss) -

The most severe cases of programming and brainwashing of children by mothers occurred when they were left for other women, believed there was another woman, or discovered a new woman in the life of the father.

With social changes creating parity between parents in the eyes of the court, a mother's traditional role with her children may be undermined. This may be perceived by the mother as a considerable psychological threat which can only be dealt with by developing a pathological alliance with the child.

Nonetheless, in practice this "parity" does not always operate. Alienated fathers also experience gender bias but it is a product of their being alienated - the courts often automatically assume that the father is less of a good parent than the mother is. A member of the ACAB group in St. John's, Newfoundland - a support group for accused and abused alienated parents founded in January of 1995 - felt that he had to play the same games as the court in order to "win" - he deliberately hired a female lawyer.

5 However, vulnerability also seems to be a characteristic of alienated parents. Interviews with members of the ACAB group indicate that the profile of men (most of the members are men though a couple of women have recently joined) who are alienated are generally passive. Mr. A. went along with his wife's alcoholism until he knew that he had to seek help for her. After telling her doctor that he was afraid of her using Prozac because she had a drinking problem, his wife left him. She then accused him of sexually abusing his daughter. Despite her alienating behaviour, Mr. A. still feels that he could have helped her sooner and he blames the alcoholism for her actions. Mr. B. continued to pay the bills after their breakup though he did not live in the home and he did not try to get court orders enforced (regarding times he could see his daughter) which she was not following. His wife even set up counselling with a friend - a nun posing as a therapist - so that she would be portrayed favourably in the assessments. Mr. B.'s requests for a different counsellor were ignored. However, Mr. C. had a different attitude - less passive. This seems to be a consequence of the long-term nature of his situation - the alienation has been going on for almost eight years. Also, the alienation has become more than mental - the mother allows the stepfather to make Mr. C.'s son drink beer, show him how to use a hypodermic needle (the stepfather is apparently a diabetic), force him to do strenuous physical labour, and prevent him from going to church with Mr. C.

6 This is supported by the fact that role reversals often occur during custody disputes. The child becomes parentified acting as the supporter and comforter of the divorced parent. This situation was recognized in Radford v. Cassiano, [1995] O.J. No. 105 Kingston Registry No. 460190, Ontario Court of Justice - Provincial Division.

8 Catherine Foster, a mediator at the Unified Family Court in St. John's, Newfoundland, emphasized that "theories" are meaningless in the absence of acontext -- personality attributes and situational factors must not be ignored.

9 Cross-gender alignments seem to be the most common (Johnston, Janet. Non-Residential Parenting: New Vistas in Family Living. California: Sage, 1993 at 112) and girls are less likely to be aligned than boys (Ibid. at 119). This appears to reflect the facts that women brainwash more frequently and that the parent is seeking a substitute for the failed marriage.

10 Catherine Foster suggests that such labels might be viewed as an easy way out and, at best, they should only be used for severe cases.

11 Cartwright, Glenn F. "Expanding the Parameters of Parental Alienation Syndrome."The American Journal of Family Therapy, Fall 1993, Vol. 21(3) at 205. Gardner, who coined the term P.A.S., states that P.A.S. "has been a problem in more than 90% of the custody conflicts in which he has been the court-appointed examiner" (Palmer, Nancy R. "Legal Recognition of the Parental Alienation Syndrome." The American Journal of Family Therapy, 1988, Vol. 16(4) at 362).

12 Table 9 in the appendix indicates that parents either brainwash at an intense level or at extremely low levels or not at all. This would appear to make it relatively easy to perceive its manifestations. However, this does not seem to make the manifestations of P.A.S. any easier to explain.

18 A "criteria" approach can have negative implications. For instance, a member of the ACAB group reported that sitting in the leapfrog position was being used as an almost absolute criteria for proving that a child has been sexually abused.

19 Examples of some of the indicators: For the accused - Longstanding history of emotional deprivation, Impulsivity, Coercive-Dominating behaviour, Presence of sexual deviations, Substance abuse, Psychosis; For the child - Advanced sexual knowledge for age, Depression and withdrawal, Pathological compliance, Pseudomaturity; For the accuser - Childhood history of sexual abuse, Passivity and/or inadequacy, Moralism, Enthusiastic commitment to the data-collection process, Paranoia.

20 However, applying these criteria do not result in a total evaluation (Gardner, Richard A. "Differentiating Between True and False Sex-Abuse Accusations in Child-Custody Disputes." Journal of Divorce & Remarriage, 1994, Vol.21(3/4) at 17).

47 Levy, D. "Review of Parental Alienation Syndrome: A Guide for Mental Health and Legal Professionals." American Journal of Family Therapy, 1992, Vol. 20(3) at 277.

48 "There are cases in the states of Louisiana, Missouri, Pennsylvania, Illinois, North Carolina, Iowa, and California where judges have held that a parent cannot poison the mind of a child and that it is improper and illegal for one parent to alienate the child against the other parent." However, it must be remembered that this is not the case in all the states and its applicability as a precedent would seem to be limited to cases which are highly similar to those already decided. (Palmer, Nancy R. "Legal Recognition of the Parental Alienation Syndrome." The American Journal of Family Therapy, 1988, Vol. 16(4) at 363)

49 Palmer, Nancy R. "Legal Recognition of the Parental Alienation Syndrome." The American Journal of Family Therapy, 1988, Vol. 16(4) at 362.

53 Alienating parents also use technical or mechanical surrogates - they tape record planned conversations with their children or surreptitiously tape record the alienating parent during a telephone conversation and then edit the tape so its context is skewed. For instance, the wife of a member of the ACAB group taped their daughter during a bathtime - getting her to say that "Daddy touched me where the washcloth is." This is atypical parental behaviour. This evidence was assessed by a social worker and given great weight by the court. Alienated parents also try to use tapes to prove their case. Another member saved tapes from his answering machine which had his son crying for his father? because of his alienating mother. The court would not allow such tapes into admission.

57 Clawar, Stanley S., et al. Children Held Hostage: Dealing with Programmed and Brainwashed Children. Chicago: American Bar Association, 1991 at 171. Viva voce testimony by both parents was suggested in Rutherford v. Rutherford (1986), 4 R.F.L. (3d) 457. However, this method is usually used where there is a lack of evidence though it may clarify contradictory evidence.

66 This social worker followed the protocol of the Institute for the Prevention of Child Abuse. "While not accepted as an expert witness the judge gave her testimony great weight noting that she had 14 years experience" (Bala, Nicholas. ICPA Update Vol. 5: Child Abuse and the Law at 56-57). However, her evidence would not necessarily be flawless.

70 Johnston, Janet. Non-Residential Parenting: New Vistas in Family Living. California: Sage, 1993 at 113. This is the solution for severe and moderate P.A.S. In mild P.A.S., "the symptoms in both the alienating parent and children are likely to disappear (most often dramatically) as soon as the court makes a final decision that the children shall remain permanently with the alienating parent. From that point on the symptoms serve no purpose and can be allowed to evaporate." Though Gardner suggests that radical intervention is not necessary in mild cases, is it not possible that a parent who employs any kind of brainwashing would not be the best role model even though they have discontinued the alienation once they achieved their goal of custody.

Regarding the supervised access, Catherine Foster indicates that court budgets only allow for limited supervised access periods - not enough time for real changes to occur and parents are on their best behaviour during supervision.

78 The Best Interests Test has become such a presumptive legal standard that even though the Divorce Act lists specific criteria that are to be considered, "functionally the standard is indeed 'amorphous"' - i.e. subjective (Saunders, Richard T. "Some Ethical and Legal Features of Child Custody Disputes: A Case Illustration and Applications." Psychotherapy, Spring 1993, Vol. 30(1) at 52). Thus, if PAS is not recognized by the legal system nor to a large extent by the mental health system, it will become lost in the shuffle of subjectivity

82 This is particularly distressing given that Radford is a 1995 judgment. The court seems to be focusing so intently on expanding children's "rights" that the implications for P.A.S. are not considered. Hence, children's rights are actually being diminished.